Don't seek the truth;

We see what we have a mind to see. --Robert S Hartman

More then that, we see what makes us comfortable:

But once a negative bias begins, out lenses become clouded. We tend to seize on whatever seems to confirm the bias and ignore what does not. Prejudice, in this sense, is a hypothesis desperately trying to prove itself to us. And so when we encounter someone to whom the prejudice might apply, the bias skews our perception, making it impossible to test whether the stereotype actually fits. Openly hostile stereotypes about a group - to the extent they rest on untested assumptions - are mental categories gone awry. --Daniel GolemanBecause what you judge you cannot understand. --Anthony De Mello

We see what we want to see:

Some students begin by forming an opinion ... and it is not till afterward that they begin to read the texts. They run a great risk of not understanding them at all, or of understanding them wrongly. What happens is that a kind of tacit contest goes on between the text and the preconceived opinions of the reader; the mind refuses to grasp what is contrary to its idea, and the issue of the evidence of the text but that the text yields, bends, and accommodates itself to the preconceived opinion. --Fustel de CoulangesAre you listening, as most people do, in order to confirm what you already think? --Anthony De MelloWhat the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.
--Warren Buffett

And the truth? Were is it? What is it?

Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions. --Anthony De Mello

I've read book by Anthony "Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality" couple of times, found it amazing but stayed puzzled. HVP test showed me a new direction of thinking towards values and valuation and finally, when I've realized that valuation is in other words judgment, I thought, is this what Anthony wanted to say?

My aim is to ponder our collective predicament: if we so easily full ourselves into subtle sleep, how can we awaken? The first step in that, it seems to me, is to notice how it is that we are asleep.

Contemporary researchers have adopted a rather radical premise: that much or most consequential activity in the mind goes on outside awareness.

--Daniel Goleman

Valuation or (pre)judgment gives objects, situation and people different values. In extreme case it allows for totally reverted valuation and choices. Painting remains to be a painting no matter if it's by Leonardo da Vinci or my little kid. It's our thinking that gives one or the other much greater value.

What Antony say is that we are programmed to value or judge in a certain way which changes the reality. We are not aware, we don't see things as they are but as we are because we look through our lenses of judgment. And our judgment is a coping strategy that prevent us from the pain of what causes or caused anxiety to us:

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

Technically speaking, "coping" is the term for a range of cognitive maneuvers that relieve stress arousal by changing one's own reaction rather than altering the stressful situation itself.

That framework and data show, in modern terms, how the self-system protects us against anxiety by skewing attention.

For many serious sources of stress in life, there's little or nothing that can be done to change things. If so, you're better off if you do nothing except take care of your feelings ... healthy people use palliatives all the time, with no ill effect. Having a drink or taking tranquilizers are palliatives. So is denial, intellectualizing, and avoiding negative thoughts. When they don't prevent adaptive action, they help greatly.

--Daniel Goleman

So how much awareness is possible? There's just too much input information around us. How can we train our unconsciousness to filter "properly"? Isn't that "properly" just another appealing system?

I sometimes failed to persuade the court that I was right, but I never failed to persuade myself! --Roger Fisher